A ‘Telecaster’

[Prostheta]

I could do a list

The easiest is always tool-free, so I would hazard that you'd go this route. An angled recess at the short end would cause the cover to pivot on the fulcrum between the face of the headstock and the recess when you press it. The second would be with a magnet stronger than the strength of the one retaining it in place. This just means having to have a magnet at one's beck and call.

What do I win? A free Telecaster....?

[Dave Higham]

Hm! No flies on you Mister @Prostheta !

B

But I'm afraid I don't have a spare Telecaster at the moment .

[Prostheta]

Nice to see more of the binding and purfling work around the headstock as well. It seems strangely incongruous with the Telecaster, a guitar that is about as basic as electrics have ever been.....! The geometry of those bevels are worth the price of entry alone.

[Dave Higham]

1 hour ago, Prostheta said:

Nice to see more of the binding and purfling work around the headstock as well. It seems strangely incongruous with the Telecaster, a guitar that is about as basic as electrics have ever been.....! The geometry of those bevels are worth the price of entry alone.

Er . . . are we at cross purposes? Perhaps I didn't make it clear. The above photos are of a headstock with binding I bent by boiling and clamping onto a form. I'm not sure how I'd set about binding the headstock of a Tele. Although you've got me thinking . . .

[Prostheta]

Oh no, food for future projects!

No, I was simply making the observation that detail and sophistication are at odds with everything that most would consider being "very Tele". I like it. 

[Bizman62]

That's a pretty fancy headstock for a ukulele! Or is it a bass? No matter what, it's georgeous!

[Dave Higham]

3 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

That's a pretty fancy headstock for a ukulele! Or is it a bass? No matter what, it's georgeous!

Thank you. Actually it's a guitar. Those are pilot/locating holes which were opened up (and two more added) for the tuners.

On the other hand, this is a bass ukulele.

 

[Bizman62]

Well, that backfired 

As a silver lining for this cloud of mine, building a bass uke like that might be interesting and playing one should be easier than a long scale bass. Does that one have a piezo somewhere, also what's the scale length? And how does it sound compared to electric or dog house basses?

 

[Dave Higham]

3 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

Does that one have a piezo somewhere, also what's the scale length? And how does it sound compared to electric or dog house basses?

It was based on the original Kala Ubass. Scale length is 520mm. It has the same piezo bridge pickup as the original Kalas (Shadow, I think but no longer available) but a good alternative is the K&K acoustic bass guitar pickup. It's shown with polyurethane strings which probably sound most like an upright bass, but they have their drawbacks. They stretch and feel peculiar under the fingers. I've since changed them for Galli nylon wound which I really like.

https://www.stringsbymail.com/galli-uxb810-black-nylon-round-wound-ukulele-bass-strings-20-5-scale-22016.html

Galli also do flat wound chrome steel which are really nice but really expensive.

https://www.stringsbymail.com/galli-ka-bass-4fw-chrome-steel-flat-wound-ukulele-bass-20-5-scale-22899.html

I think the polyurethane strings give the nearest to an upright sound. There are hundreds of videos on YouTube.

[Dave Higham]

I can now install the purfling, but I can’t install the binding at the same time. I do it a little at a time, holding it in place and applying a drop of water-thin CA and trying not to glue my fingers to it. Should have taken photos but . . .

The third piece of binding goes on first. It covers the length of the bevel. It’s not as deep as the rest of the binding, it’s the same depth as the purfling.

I take most of the surplus height off with a little block plane and finish off flush with the top with a cabinet scraper.

Now I run the router round this area again, as if I were routing for the binding, which tapers off the ends of the bevel top binding.

Just as the binding rebate had to be widened on the top, in the area of the bevel, it also has to be deepened in the side by an equivalent amount. I haven’t been able to think of a way of doing that with a router, so I have to resort to craft knives, chisels and patience.

[Prostheta]

I'm surprised that @ScottR hasn't checked in yet. He'd love this.

[ADFinlayson]

That's some impressive stuff putting the acoustic style arm bevel on a solid body like that, especially chiselling out that curve so neatly. I'm attempting an arm bevel on one of my OM builds so watching this closely!

[Dave Higham]

36 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

That's some impressive stuff putting the acoustic style arm bevel on a solid body like that

I've only done it once before Ash (on an OM) but I did it exactly the same way. After all, the area of the bevel on an acoustic is 'solid'. I asked a lot of questions on other forums and received a lot of help and advice, particularly from Steve Kinnaird. I've always been amazed by the generosity of some professional luthiers in freely sharing information. When I built the OM I cheekily wrote to two pros who use a slightly different bracing pattern to what's accepted as 'standard', asking if they would share information on dimensions, etc. They both said 'sure, what would you like to know?'. One even sent me a full size hand-drawn plan. These were guys whos base price started at $6000.

[ADFinlayson]

58 minutes ago, Dave Higham said:

I've only done it once before Ash (on an OM) but I did it exactly the same way. After all, the area of the bevel on an acoustic is 'solid'. I asked a lot of questions on other forums and received a lot of help and advice, particularly from Steve Kinnaird. I've always been amazed by the generosity of some professional luthiers in freely sharing information. When I built the OM I cheekily wrote to two pros who use a slightly different bracing pattern to what's accepted as 'standard', asking if they would share information on dimensions, etc. They both said 'sure, what would you like to know?'. One even sent me a full size hand-drawn plan. These were guys whos base price started at $6000.

Interesting, I have been using a different method for the bevel, I trimmed the side down to the bevel shape with a chisel and thumb plane prior to sticking the solid block in. I don't know which method will prove easier at the end of it. We will see. I think there are good people in all of the woodworking related communities I've joined. This one in particular has a lot of people sharing invaluable information. 

This is as far as I got with my bevel. I've just braced the top so I need to get that all finished before I do any more with it but I don't think I'm going to be doing any fancy splot purfling like what you have, I'm not there yet!

[Dave Higham]

That's looking good

5 hours ago, ADFinlayson said:

I trimmed the side down to the bevel shape with a chisel and thumb plane prior to sticking the solid block in.

When I made the OM I don't think I'd seen the method of shaping the side before gluing the linings in, although I did cut the bevel shape into the top before gluing it on. Shaping the side first is a better way of going about it I think. I'd work out the shape the side needs to be by projection from the shape of the bevelled top. In the drawing shown, I prefer the second bevel to the first. I think it looks more elegant, although many luthiers do bevels like the first one. The one on the right shows how I work out the profile I need on the side.

[ADFinlayson]

4 minutes ago, Dave Higham said:

That's looking good

When I made the OM I don't think I'd seen the method of shaping the side before gluing the linings in, although I did cut the bevel shape into the top before gluing it on. Shaping the side first is a better way of going about it I think. I'd work out the shape the side needs to be by projection from the shape of the bevelled top. In the drawing shown, I prefer the second bevel to the first. I think it looks more elegant, although many luthiers do bevels like the first one. The one on the right shows how I work out the profile I need on the side.

Yeah the second one is pretty much what I was following. It starts at the end block and finishes at the waist but is very gradual. It certainly does look more organic than the first one IMO but adds extra mass from the bigger solid block, where as the first one performs the function of comfort for the right arm but has less impact on the sound board. 

Anyway, apologies for hijacking your thread. Looking forward to seeing how it pans out on the tele. Are you planning to put a veneer over the block or reveal the quilt maple between the bindings? Or maybe I should just wait and see!

[Dave Higham]

5 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

Anyway, apologies for hijacking your thread. Looking forward to seeing how it pans out on the tele. Are you planning to put a veneer over the block or reveal the quilt maple between the bindings? Or maybe I should just wait and see!

No problems about hijacking. Communication is what forums are all about.

Wait and see . . . won't be long.

 

[Dave Higham]

Now it’s ready for the rest of the binding. The treble side is straightforward, but the bass side binding has to be pushed down in the bevel area, so reducing it in height to about 2 mm in that area helps it to bend.

The rebate is cut so that, when the binding is installed, it will be a little proud of the top surface and the sides. It’s easier to scrape the binding flush with the top and sides than the top and sides flush with the binding.

I now have to shave the corner off to form the bevel. This left a couple of triangular grooves which I filled with two strips softwood.

I’ve only done one bevel like this before, on an OM, and I didn’t trust myself to cut it with a spokeshave and keep a constant 45° angle all the way round. So I took most of it off with the spokeshave and then finished off with this sanding contraption.

After sanding, the bevel looks like this. You can see the upper softwood filler. The lower one has almost gone.

 

[Prostheta]

Now that is absolutely fascinating to me. (also, is that Okoumé marine plywood?)

I don't think people are designing and making jigs enough to solve problems these days. I remember that the best builders I've ever had the privilege of interacting with spent more time designing and perfecting even the most miscellaneous of jigs, often where the end product wouldn't necessarily telegraph their use. Seeing a device, solution or jig performing its task flawlessly is akin to watching a built-up clock work.

Nice use of sacrificial service material as well. It makes that overflowing scrap bin feel more like a goldmine

[Dave Higham]

Now I had to find a veneer to cover the bevel.

First I needed to make a template. I stuck a piece of paper onto the bevel using repositionable spray adhesive and traced the outline with a pencil.

A few years ago I made a bass ukulele (not the one further up this thread, another one) but only had guitar-size back and side sets, which left me with some large rosewood off-cuts. I stuck my tracing onto an off-cut and cut it out leaving about 3 mm all round.

I sanded the veneer down to about 1.25 mm thick (flexible enough to bend easily around the bevel) and it’s ready to be glued on.

Gluing the veneer onto the body was rather stressful the other time I did it. It has to be bent round the bevel and taped in place whilst it’s trying to slither around because of the glue and if I don’t get it lined up properly and the glue starts to grab I’m in a mess, so I thought of a way to try to make sure that didn’t happen . I used my paper template to trace the outline of the bevel on the inside of the veneer. Then I stuck 5 little blocks of softwood cut at 45° onto the veneer with just a tiny dab of glue. These should enable me to position the veneer on the bevel perfectly (I hope!)

Hope there’s enough tape on there. Fingers crossed.

Tape off. It looks to be OK.

After some VERY careful trimming, especially at each end where the veneer tapers down to nothing, with spokeshave, chisels and cabinet scraper it looked like this.

[Bizman62]

Holy Moses! That bevel is stupendous - they often seem to have a discontinuity point or two at the ends but you've managed to get the curve of the binding continue without any corners. It almost looks like there's an offset lower bout casting a shadow left to it! Wow, just wow!

[Nicco]

Wow, this looks absolutely gorgeous. Fantastic seeing the work going into your jigs and templates too, they look as good as many people's finished pieces! Ha ha

[ScottR]

On 9/16/2021 at 1:11 PM, Prostheta said:

I'm surprised that @ScottR hasn't checked in yet. He'd love this.

I did check in during the early days, but have been out of town on holiday as you guys would call it for the last 10 days.

I am thoroughly impressed the craftsmanship of the build and the jigs as well. I'm sure they get your motor running Carl!

And I saw and heard a bass uke for the first time last week and was blown away by sound and depth of the bass output.

Carry  on Dave and continue to astound us.

SR

[mistermikev]

wow, some lovely joinery going on there.  bravo.

[Dave Higham]

Thank you for the kind remarks chaps. They're very much appreciated.

I carved a lump out of the back using spokeshave, microplane and sanding sticks . . .

. . . and now it was time for the neck pocket. When I decided to make this guitar I thought I’d save myself some time and work by buying a Mighty Mite neck from Stewmac. I made a template using the neck itself. I don’t know if this is the approved method but it worked for me. Place the neck on a piece of MDF. Apply double sided tape to some pieces of wood and stick them to the MDF butting them up tightly to the neck.

Took the neck out. Cut out most of the MDF where the neck was on the band saw. There’s also a cut-out at the other end which will help me to centralise the template on the body. Routed out the remainder on the router table.

At this point I realised that the template was too thick to be able to route the whole depth of the pocket without having to change cutters, so I made another one. This thinner template was too flexible where it overhangs the body, so I added two cauls the same thickness as the body.

Then I positioned the template on the body and I realised that, for the photo, I’d stuck the cauls on the wrong end. They were only held in place with double sided tape, so I pulled them off and put them on the right end. I could now trace the outline of the pocket, and then hog out most of the wood with a Forstner bit.

Now , I know I took a photo of that, but I’ve lost it!

 

Anyway, I then put the template back on the body and routed the remainder of the pocket.

The little white band is a paper scale I print out and stick to the body. This lets me align the template perfectly with the centre line of the body.

Pocket routed

That looks like a pretty good fit. Good enough for me anyway!